How To Be Kind To Yourself About Reading

My big goal this year is to be kinder to myself regarding reading. By the end of last year, I was pushing myself to read more and more to get my physical TBR to less than 100. I managed that, but it meant that I was reading so much all the time. Plus, there were a few review copies that I’d been sent that I needed to read, and it just got to be too much.

This year, I’m going easier on myself. I’m already ahead on review books, so I can space them out, and I’m doing this TBR basket where I’ve got a pile of books to pick from, but I can read them in any order.

I’m thinking a lot about ways I can be kinder to myself this year, so I wanted to share some of them with you.

Don’t Set a Reading Goal

Obviously, I’m not doing this. But I am telling myself that if I need to lower my goal? I’ll do so later in the year.

But for many of us, our self-set reading goals can be a stressor. Set it too high, and you’ll have to read a ton to reach it. Even a low goal can be too much if you wind up in a reading slump. Reading is a fun hobby, and even though it can be a bit more of a job for us content creators, it should still be fun.

If we’re forcing ourselves to pick books up to reach some arbitrary number? Yeah, it’s probably not worth it.

That said, having a goal can also encourage us to get reading. So I’m not saying you shouldn’t set a goal. But you should only think about doing so if it’ll help, not hinder.

Try To Have Some Variety In Your Reading

I’m not just talking about variety in the genres you read here, either.

No matter how you pick your books; a TBR jar, a TBR game, mood reads, some prompts or whatever else, it can all get very samey.

This is where doing readathons can help, as you’ll have a new list of prompts. Or even a whole new way of getting your TBR together. But, obviously, this is only sometimes possible.

You should find ways to mix up what you’re reading. If you’re feeling slumpy, then mood reading is probably best. Or use some prompts if you don’t know what you want to read. You can even do a mix of different things.

My current TBR picking consists of a couple of review copies and then a few mood reads. I then draw a few jar picks to finalise up my TBR basket. I can then semi-mood-read in that I’m not making myself pick up the books in a particular order. Which is how I used to read.

I like this way as I’m still getting some choices. But I’ll also wind up picking out some books I’ve had for a while that I’m just not picking up on my own. And then the order I’m reading them in will depend on what I’m in the mood for now.

A big thing that this way of picking books out helps with is balance.

Find Balance With Your Other Hobbies

Sometimes we need to take a break from reading. Especially when we have a bunch of other hobbies, one of which is calling for you.

Over the years, one of my problems has been prioritising reading over my other hobbies. I talk about giving myself a break when I need it, but the reality is that it’s rare I do so.

I have so many games that I want to play. I have a new fanfic I’ve started to write and a bunch of novels I should get back to. Most nights, my brain is so dead these days that I watch YouTube for an hour or so before I sleep. And doing all that is okay. I actually want to do most of that.

So why do I need to stop and read a book instead? Yeah, it’s a problem.

Being kind to yourself can be simply telling yourself that you don’t have to read. Pick up one of your other hobbies and lose yourself in that instead. You don’t even need an audiobook whilst doing other things.

Let Yourself Reread

And I’m not necessarily talking about rereading books so you can continue on a series.

As readers, we all have favourite books, and we love rereading them repeatedly. But when you have an enormous unread TBR, sometimes you can feel guilty about rereading. But we shouldn’t!

Rereading still counts as reading and if whatever’s going on in our lives means we’d rather lose ourselves in worlds that we already know and love? 

That’s valid.

The only rereading I’ve been doing has been for projects or to continue series. I should change that.

Don’t Worry About Your TBR

The most significant stressor as readers is often our TBRs. No matter how many books you own or what speed you read…we can all feel trapped by our TBRs.

Sometimes, we need to nope out and leave our TBR behind. Just for a little while.

Go buy yourself a book you want to read right away, take a trip to the library and pick up a few things. Or if you’re subscribed to services like Kindle Unlimited or Scribd, you can borrow a few things from there instead.

This is only smart in the short term if your TBR is stressing you out. But sometimes, you need a break. Getting something brand new to you can feel like hitting the reset button.

Make sure that if you’re buying new books, you pick them up straight away, as just adding them to your TBR won’t help.

Final Thoughts

There are a few other sections I could write for this post, but I’m going to leave them here.

Being kind to yourself about your reading will look different for different people. We should all figure out what we like about reading and what’s stressing us out. We need to do that before reading makes us feel more like a job than a hobby we love.

2023 should be the year of us all being kind to ourselves. So let’s do precisely that and start by looking at our reading habits.